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Scouse phonetics and phonology
Vowels Monophthongs * As other Northern English varieties, Scouse lacks the - and - splits, so that words like cut and pass have the same vowels as put and back . However, some middle-class speakers may use a more RP-like pronunciation, so that cut and pass may be and , with the former containing an extra phoneme that is normally not found in Northern England English. Generally, speakers are not very successful in differentiating between and or and (only in the words), which often leads to hypercorrection. Utterances such as good luck or black castle may be and instead of RP-like , or Scouse , . Speakers who successfully differentiate between the vowels in good and luck may use a schwa (best identified phonemically as , rather than a separate phoneme ) instead of an RP-like in the second word, so that they pronounce good luck as . * The words book, cook and look are typically pronounced with rather than that of , which is true within Northern England and the Midlands. This causes minimal pairs such as look and luck, and book and buck. The use of a long in such words is more often used in working-class accents, however recently this feature is becoming more recessive, being less found with younger people. * Some speakers exhibit the weak vowel merger, so that the unstressed merges with . For those speakers, eleven and orange are pronounced and rather than and . * In final position, tend to be somewhat diphthongal . Sometimes this also happens before in words such as school . * is typically central and it may be even fronted to so that it becomes the rounded counterpart of . * The vowel is tense and is best analysed as belonging to the phoneme. * has a huge allophonic variation. Contrary to most other accents of England, the vowel covers both and lexical sets. This vowel has unrounded front , , , , ]}}, rounded front , unrounded central , , ]}} and rounded central variants. Diphthongs of the and types are also possible. For simplicity, this article uses only the symbol }}. There is not a full agreement on which realisations are the most common: ** They are and , with the former being more conservative. ** It is . ** They are and , with the latter being more conservative. ** It is typically a front vowel of the ~ ~ ]}} type. ** It is . * Middle class speakers may differentiate from by using a front vowel for the former and a central for the latter, much like in RP. * There is not a full agreement on the phonetic realisation of : ** It is back , with front being a common realisation for some speakers. ** It is typically front . Diphthongs * The vowel typically has a front second element . * The vowel often merges with the vowel , so that sure is often . When distinct from , this vowel is a diphthong or a disyllabic sequence or . The last two realisations are best interpreted phonemically as a sequence . Variants other than the monophthong are considered to be very conservative. * The vowel is typically diphthongal , rather than being a monophthong that is commonly found in other Northern English accents. * The vowel has a considerable allophonic variation. Its starting point can be open-mid front , close-mid front or mid central (similarly to the vowel), whereas its ending point varies between fairly close central and a more back . The most typical realisation is , but and an RP-like are also possible. According to him, the version has a centralised starting point . This and variants similar to it sound inappropriately posh in combination with other broad Scouse vowels. * Older Scouse had a contrastive vowel which is now most commonly merged with / . * The vowel can be monophthongized to in certain environments. The diphthongal realisation is quite close to the conservative RP norm ( ). * The vowel is , close to the RP norm. Consonants * NG-coalescence is not present as with other Northern English accents, for instance realising along as . * Like many other accents around the world, G-dropping also occurs, with being a substitute for . * has several allophones depending on environment: **Debuccalization to , with older speakers only doing this in function words with short vowel pre-pausally: it, lot, not, that, what, pronounced respectively. On the other hand, younger speakers may further debuccalise in polysyllabic words in unstressed syllables, hence aggregate, maggot, market . ** Word-finally and before another vowel, it is typically pronounced or , which is found in several other Northern English varieties. **T-glottalisation also occurs like the rest of the UK, with occurring before and other syllabic consonants, however rarely occurring. * Fricatisation of voiceless plosives : ** Affrication of as word-initially and lenited, variously articulated such as , intervocalically and word-finally. ** can turn into an affricate or a fricative, determined mostly by the quality of the preceding vowel. If replaced with a fricative, a voiceless velar fricative x or voiceless uvular fricative χ may be used in words like book or clock. ** Much rarely, can be fricatised to . * As with other varieties of English, the voiceless plosives are aspirated word-initially, except when precedes in the same syllable. It can also occur word- and utterance-finally, with potential preaspirated pronunciations (which is often perceived as glottal noise or as oral friction produced in the same environment as the stop) for utterance-final environments, primarily found in female speakers. * The voiced plosives are also fricatised, with particularly being lentitioned to the same extent as , although it is frequently devoiced to . * The dental fricatives are often realised as dental stops under Irish influence, although the fricative forms are also found. * The accent is non-rhotic, meaning is not pronounced unless followed by a vowel. When it is pronounced, it is typically realised as a tap particularly between vowels (mi''rr''or, ve''r''y) or as a consonant cluster (b''r''eath, f''r''ee, st''r''ip), and approximant otherwise. Nevertheless, the approximant realisation can also be seen where the tap is typically realised. External links * Category:Language phonologies